The present invention relates to an anal incontinence treatment apparatus and method. More specifically, the invention relates to an anal incontinence treatment apparatus and method for surgical application in the abdomen of a patient for forming a restricted fecal passageway in the colon or rectum. The term “patient” includes an animal or a human being.
Anal incontinence is a wide-spread disease. Several kinds of sphincter plastic surgery are used today to remedy anal incontinence. There is a prior manually operated sphincter system in an initial clinical trial phase where a hydraulic sphincter system connected to an elastic reservoir (balloon) placed in the scrotum is developed. A disadvantage of this system is that thick, hard fibrosis is created around the reservoir by pump movements making the system useless sooner or later.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,443 discloses a hydraulic anal sphincter under both reflex and voluntary control. A pressure controlled inflatable artificial sphincter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,377.